The 25 best action-thriller shows and films to watch right now

Chris Hemsworth is a great action movie star - he looks the part physically, and he has a wit and humanity about him that means you can really get behind watching him murdering his way across the screen for nearly two hours. And that's important in Extraction, because his hardened mercenary character is not a nice one, on the surface. The plot follows Tyler Rake (Hemsworth) as he takes a job to rescue a drug lord's boy that feels like just one more assignment but, when it all goes wrong - really, really, wrong - it leads to some soul-searching amid the chaos that results.

And what chaos, because the action scenes here are incredible. The film is set in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and the camera places us right behind Hemsworth as he cuts a trail of destruction through claustrophobic blocks of flats, chaotic roads and even down into the sewers. Extraction is the feature directorial debut of Sam Hargrave, a veteran stuntman, and you can feel his expertise in how exciting, fast and yet easy to follow all this action is. The film's success led to a sequel being ordered, with Hargrave at the helm once more. (117 minutes)

The Night Agent

An FBI agent battles a top-level conspiracy in this thriller

Year: 2023

Certificate: 15

Stuck in a White House basement guarding a phone that never rings, FBI agent Peter Sutherland (Hillbilly Elegy's Gabriel Basso) is starting to wonder if perhaps he hasn't made the wrong career choice. But then, one day, a call unexpectedly comes through and he finds himself catapulted into a lethal conspiracy involving a Russian mole deep within the government.

With echoes of The Bourne Identity and 24, this slick modern thriller series, created by The Shield's Shawn Ryan - a past master of macho action, with a TV CV that includes LAPD dramas The Shield and S.W.A.T. - ticks all the right boxes for fans of tense revelations and all-out action scenes.

Trivia fans may like to know that the show is a direct result of the Covid lockdown - Ryan read the Matthew Quirk novel it's based on while he was quarantining in 2020, and liked it so much that he decided to adapt it for TV. The result was a big hit for Netflix, so there will be a second series. (One series)

Burn Notice

Slick and action-packed US drama about a disavowed spy

Year: 2007-2013

Certificate: 15

With a playful, comedic streak and a star who looks and sounds a lot like Guy Pearce, this slick and enjoyable US drama follows a spy who's been blacklisted for reasons unknown. Michael (Jeffrey Donovan) is in Nigeria when the 'burn notice' occurs, at a most awkward moment; then he wakes up in Miami with a mystery on his hands.

What sets the series apart is a pointed narration from Donovan and a collection of charismatic co-stars: David Zayas, then famed as Dexter's friend Angel in Dexter, go-to-TV bad guy of the time Ray Wise (Twin Peaks), B-movie legend Bruce Campbell and Cagney & Lacey's Sharon Gless as Michael's mother.

Taken as a whole Burn Notice is a fun, stylish and interesting show, and Donovan would have charm to spare even if his supporting cast didn't bring plenty of their own. It was originally shown during the glory days of the USA Network, a cable operation that also brought us Suits, White Collar and plenty more jazzily charismatic shows. Its entirely apt slogan during those glory days was 'Characters Welcome', and Burn Notice is one of the best exponents of that philosophy. (Seven series)

The Beekeeper

Jason Statham stars as an apiarist with very special skills

Year: 2024

Certificate: 15

Watch now on NOW

Watch now on Sky

There are only so many people who can pull off the 'unassuming man with special skills' type of action film. Liam Neeson is one, but doesn't do it with nearly as much charm as Jason Statham. He first came to our attention in Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels way back in 1998, and has since become one of the world's most bankable action stars in movies such as The Transporter, The Mechanic and The Meg. He's done it again in The Beekeeper, in which the Derbyshire-born actor quite literally plays a beekeeper with very special skills.

He doesn't just keep actual bees and put their honey in jars, though, although he's also very good at that. Oh no. Adam Clay (Statham) is also a retired member of a deadly government organisation also known as 'Beekeepers', a covert group with - yes, you guessed it, very special skills. And when a tragedy befalls his kindly landlady, Clay brings them all into play to exact revenge on the vile perpetrators, all of whom look like they richly deserve it. If you enjoy seeing justice done, this is the action movie for you - and look out for Jeremy Irons and Jemma Redgrave as Clay's violent odyssey unfolds. (105 minutes)

Reacher (Series 1)

High-octane action adventure series based on Lee Child's novels

Year: 2022

Certificate: 15

Tom Cruise is one of the best movie stars in the business, but he's 5ft 7in - and a lot of people had a problem with his casting in the Jack Reacher movie as the ex-military policeman who was described by his creator, Lee Child, as 'extremely tall'.

No such issue exists with this series, in which the strong, silent Reacher is played by Alan Ritchson, a man well north of 6ft with biceps the size of tree trunks. Reacher is more than brawn, though. He's capable of fighting six men at once and making Sherlock-level deductions at the same time, and can say a lot with a look. In fact, he spends the first six minutes of this show not speaking at all - it's a great way to introduce him and sets the show up well before the main business of ridding a small town of rotten apples gets underway. A second series has been ordered, based on Child's novel Bad Luck And Trouble. (Eight episodes)

Enemy Of The State

Will Smith stars as a lawyer on the run in Tony Scott's conspiracy thriller

Year: 1998

Certificate: 15

The death of British-born film director Tony Scott shocked legions of film fans who remembered with great affection the pleasure of watching many of his films, from Top Gun to True Romance. The entertainment value of his movies was frequently off the charts, and he was synonymous with a kind of film-making that was characterised as nimble, explosive and exhilarating.

Enemy Of The State is classic Tony Scott, a taut conspiracy thriller starring Will Smith as idealistic lawyer Robert Dean, whose faith in justice makes him unafraid to stand up to dangerous criminals. When Dean inadvertently comes into possession of evidence of a politically motivated crime committed by rogue elements in the National Security Agency, those same elements use all their technological might to make him persona non grata. Dean loses his job, his family, his credibility and identity, and with his life in ruins, he goes on the run to find the truth.

If you think that the big box-office entertainment that Tony Scott is known for is simplistic, think again. Enemy Of The State weaves several plotlines together, overlapping the stories of family man Dean and the numerous rogue agents (led by a classically sinister Jon Voight) who are chasing him. You will need your wits about you to keep up, but will be rewarded with nerve-wracking chase scenes and nail-biting tension from beginning to end. (134 minutes)

SAS Rogue Heroes

High-octane drama about the birth of the elite military unit

Year: 2022

Certificate: 15

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight's twist on the story of how the SAS was formed in the Second World War. That means an energetic style, anachronistic music (heavy metal) and abundant swearing as we meet soldiers with scant respect for authority and who don't flinch as bombs fall around them. After the scene setting, this roars into life when they strap on their parachutes.

The cast is a knockout, too, with Connor Swindells and Jack O'Connell as David Stirling and Paddy Mayne, and Alfie Allen as Jock Lewes who's uppercrust accent makes him almost unrecognisable. Dominic West also stars, and there's token glamour in the shape of Sofia Boutella. (One series, a second has been confirmed)

Killing Eve

The explosive, career-making spy drama starring Jodie Comer

Year: 2018-2022

Certificate: 15

Jodie Comer plays Russian assassin Villanelle, a woman incapable of empathy or bad fashion choices - even in a pink nylon dress and tough black boots, she's the most striking action woman since Diana Rigg as Emma Peel in The Avengers in the 60s. On her tail, and curiously attracted to her, is British intelligence agent Eve, played by Sandra Oh, whose shabbiness makes Villanelle look outlandish.

When Killing Eve debuted in 2018, it instantly gripped viewers with its cruel humour, violence, twisty love story and jaw-dropping costumes. The show was a launchpad for Comer, whose star was already on the rise, and for Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who was the head writer for the first series - the second was run by a certain Emerald Fennell, who was best known then as Nurse Patsy in Call The Midwife but has since gone on to create eye-catching work as a big shot movie director (Promising Young Woman, Saltburn).

The show never quite recaptures the dazzling, renegade spirit it displayed in those early days but it remains a compelling cat-and-mouse thriller throughout, buoyed by a superb supporting cast that includes The Bridge's Kim Bodnia, Steve Pemberton and Harriet Walter. It's also easy to forget, because it was such a TV hit, that the show is actually based on the Villanelle series of books by Luke Jennings. (Four series)

Tracker

This Is Us star Justin Hartley headlines this US action show

Year: 2024

Certificate: 15

Survivalist Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) puts the skills he learned being raised in the wilds by an obsessive dad to good use as he travels the highways and byways of the US collecting reward money for helping the authorities locate everything from missing objects to missing people. It's a slick, high-concept adventure show full of action, a smattering of will-they-won't-they? romance, quirky supporting characters and snappy dialogue.

Hartley clearly relishes the chance to turn his charisma up to 11 as he gets to have fun in something a bit lighter than his previous big hit This Is Us. There are only eight episodes in this first series but don't fret: the show's already been renewed for a second run. (Eight episodes)

The Old Man (Series 1)

Jeff Bridges is a deadly ex-CIA man forced back into action

Year: 2022

Certificate: 15

There's no shortage of dramas about men being dragged out of retirement for one last job - Liam Neeson has made a whole second Hollywood career out of it - but this series is one of the finest TV examples. A big part of that is having Jeff Bridges as that (old) man, a deadly ex-CIA operative with one weakness, aside from ageing muscles - his daughter.

When he's pulled out of retirement though, the result isn't just a long sequence of fights that leave him bloodied but unbowed (although there is a lot of that). No, this is a grown-up drama about the choices we make and the consequences they have, with top-tier actors such as John Lithgow (as Bridges' friend turned enemy Harold Harper) and NYPD Blue's Amy Brenneman as a divorcee he meets on the road. (Seven episodes)

The Gray Man

Ryan Gosling plays a former assassin who is forced to go on the run

Year: 2022

Certificate: 15

Billed as Netflix's most ever expensive film - with a rumoured budget of £165m ($200m) - this sees the streamer parking its tank on James Bond and Jason Bourne territory.There are ten books in the Mark Greaney's espionage series this is based on, and the hope is the film will be successful enough to lead to more.

The always charismatic Ryan Gosling plays the grey man of the title, Court Gentry who was recruited for the CIA from jail. Once upon a time he was a top assassin for the agency but when he unearths a dark secret he is forced to go on the run from his former colleagues. Chris Evans plays Lloyd Hansen, his nefarious psychopathic enemy within the CIA, while other stars in the film include Billy Bob Thornton, Ana de Armas and Bridgerton heartthrob Rege-Jean Page. (122mins)

Mr & Mrs Smith

A funny, grounded TV take on the spy film

Year: 2024

Certificate: 15

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt met on the set of Mr. And Mrs. Smith, the fun 2005 movie about married undercover secret agents. Amazon's TV series is based on the same premise and, while it doesn't have Pitt and Jolie's megawatt charm in the leads - or the gossip that surrounded them - it is a whole lot of fun and feels much more real.

Donald Glover (Atlanta) and Maya Erskine (Obi-Wan Kenobi) are our John and Jane Smith, put together to work as a married couple by a mysterious agency and taking on assignments they don't understand. They move in glamorous circles for these frequently explosive missions, but John and Jane aren't glamorous themselves - they need the money these jobs provide and aren't quite sure how much to trust each other, which gives the show a real sense of danger. It's also very funny at times (Glover has a long track record in comedy, and is co-creator), and features a great supporting cast including Michaela Coel, John Turturro, Sharon Horgan and the great Parker Posey.

The real draw, though, is the to-and-fro between the Smiths. The meat of their interaction is much more about marriage and partnership than it is about a will-they, won't-they romance, and that's a much deeper and more interesting thing to pick apart over the course of a series. (Eight episodes)

John Wick: Chapter 4

Keanu Reeves's world-weary assassin embarks on a fourth brutal outing

Year: 2022

Certificate: 15

Time seems to be finally running out for reluctant killer John Wick (Keanu Reeves). With the High Table of the worldwide union of assassins determined to put him down once and for all, is he finally about to throw his last punch and fire his final bullet?

The fourth instalment in the gloriously gory, bullet-riddled and affectingly bittersweet franchise globetrots from the African desert to New York, and from Japan to the nighttime streets of Paris in a typically over-the-top festival of fistfights and gun battles.

If this is the final John Wick movie (and it's been heavily suggested that it is, though spin-offs aplenty are planned and one's already out - see Amazon's The Continental), then Keanu and co are definitely leaving the stage with style. (169 minutes)

The Night Manager

Classy Le Carre adaptation with a knockout cast

Year: 2016

Certificate: 15

This updated adaptation of John le Carre's 1993 novel is a big-budget spy thriller with decadent, exotic locations and an A-list cast - Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Colman, Tom Hollander and a revelatory Hugh Laurie. It's also a remarkably astute and involving character-led drama in which retribution and redemption play out in style.

Tom Hiddleston is Jonathan Pine, a former British soldier tasked with bringing down arms dealer Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie) by British intelligence officer Angela Burr (Olivia Colman). Much of the action takes place at Roper's elegant villa in Majorca, where Pine walks a precarious line (including with Roper's girlfriend, played by Elizabeth Debicki) and where we learn more about Roper and the kind of man who sells weapons for a living.

Le Carre was still alive when the show aired in 2016 (he died in 2020) and spoke favourably of the six-part adaptation that also modernised his story. He was fully behind the casting of Olivia Colman as a female (and pregnant, as in real life) version of his agent runner Mr Burr, and sang the praises of director Susanne Bier's 'meticulous style of storytelling'. Bier won a primetime Emmy, while Tom Hollander won a BAFTA for his portrayal of Corky, one of Roper's henchman.

The show was a phenomenal success for the BBC and its US partner AMC, and one they are keen to repeat. A second series has long been rumoured and, in February 2023, there was word that the BBC and Amazon Prime Video have partnered to develop series two. This is promising news, but not yet a green light. (Six episodes)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011 film)

Smart Cold War tale starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth

Year: 2011

Certificate: 15

Watch now on ITVX Premium

John le Carré's 1974 novel had previously been adapted as a critically acclaimed 1979 BBC TV series starring Alec Guinness. It was a tough act to follow, but with Gary Oldman playing the part of melancholic spy George Smiley, supported by a sterling British cast, this adaptation stands up to its mighty predecessor.

At the start of the film, Smiley and Control (John Hurt), the head of MI6 (referred to, aptly, as the Circus), leave the service in disgrace. Smiley takes his fall with customary reserve. But it is revealed that all is not well in MI6, and Smiley is brought back into the fold, in secret, to determine which of a clutch of suspects at the top of the Circus is a mole working for the Russians.

The prime suspects are played by Toby Jones, Colin Firth, Ciarán Hinds and David Dencik, with Tom Hardy magnetic in a small but pivotal role. At the apex of this fine casting, Gary Oldman's Smiley is surely a career-peak performance - a long way from the angry young man roles that made his name, and arguably even further from Jackson Lamb, the flatulent spymaster he would later play in the TV series Slow Horses. (127 minutes)

The Americans

Gritty 1980s-set undercover espionage drama starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys

Year: 2013-2018

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Channel 4

Across six enthralling series, The Americans told the story of a pair of top-level KGB agents (The Diplomat's Keri Russell and Perry Mason's Matthew Rhys) as they lived and worked as undercover agents in the America of the early 1980s. It focused on the pair - and their children, neither of whom know their parents' true identities - as they struggled to preserve their sleeper-agent status while trying to gain access to US secrets.

The result was a complex, intelligent and almost unbelievably tense period thriller series that well deserved the critical acclaim heaped upon its writing and performances. Plus there's a nice behind-the-scenes element to keep in mind while watching, as Russell and Rhys became a couple for real while filming the show, and later married and had a child. (Six series)

The Game

Brian Cox stars in a stylish Cold War thriller

Year: 2014

Certificate: 12

Watch now on U (UKTV)

This six-part Cold War thriller, set in 1972, piles on the atmosphere and period style - and has a good-looking lead in Tom Hughes. He's tall, handsome 'honeytrap' spy Joe Lambe, who's part of a crack team of MI5 operatives tasked with exposing a Russian plot known as Operation Glass.

The team consists of Sarah Montag (Victoria Hamilton), the most senior woman in MI5, her husband Alan Montag (Jonathan Aris), head of surveillance and bugging, Bobby Waterhouse (Paul Ritter), the head of counter espionage who's under the thumb of his mother Hester (Judy Parfitt) and Joe, the more-than-competent agent whose specialty is bedding women in an attempt to elicit information from them.

The stakes are high and, after a slow start, the tension mounts as the Soviets start engaging sleeper agents in Britain. Brian Cox's MI5 chief, codename Daddy, doesn't know exactly what Operation Glass entails, but has faith in his team stopping it before it comes to deadly fruition - back at a time when the fear of nuclear war was all too real. (Six episodes)

Homeland

Claire Danes is award-winning in this tense spy thriller

Year: 2011-2020

Certificate: 15

The first series of Homeland took the viewing world by storm. At its core was the return of an American PoW long thought dead, and the suspicion of one unstable intelligence analyst that he could have been turned by al-Qaeda. Was he? That's the initial premise of Homeland and the personal game that plays out between Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) and the bipolar Carrie Mathison (a brilliant Claire Danes) as it evolves layers something electric into it all.

That first series is flat-out superb. What comes in the next two over-extends the story to the point of ridiculousness until, in series four, Homeland reboots itself as a lean, mean John le Carré-style series about global espionage threats and becomes unmissable TV once again. The double Emmy Award-winning Danes remains at its core and is later joined by Rupert Friend, in another series standout performance as a deeply damaged assassin. (Eight series)

The Veil

Elisabeth Moss stars as an MI6 agent in a race against time

Year: 2024

Certificate: 18

'I can change into anything. Become a hundred strangers.' Elisabeth Moss dons a crisp English accent to play MI6 agent Imogen Salter in this glossy and gritty international spy thriller. Salter is a brilliant but unstable asset, a woman who has adopted so many identities that she's not entirely sure who she is any more.

Salter is deployed - presumably without a particularly rigorous psych assessment - to track down the mysterious and dangerous Adilah El Idrissi (Little Birds' Yumna Marwan), who could be preparing an attack on the west. The show is very much about the veil between truth and lies that unfolds between them as they travel between Istanbul, Paris and London, while The Good Wife's Josh Charles knocks back the whisky as a CIA agent who thinks he can control Salter. The fool!

Written by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders, This Town), the resulting adventure plays a little like a B-movie take on Homeland or Killing Eve, with Moss giving it some great acting punch as the bewitchingly confused Salter. It's not quite as good as watching Claire Danes dig into the tighter script she had on Homeland but then, that's a very high bar to set. (Six episodes)

Bodyguard

Riveting BBC thriller starring Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes

Year: 2018

Certificate: 15

Bodyguard is intelligent, psychological storytelling so gripping you'll have to remind yourself to breathe. Set in and around Westminster, Line Of Duty creator Jed Mercurio's thrilling six-part series stars Game Of Thrones' Richard Madden as David Budd, a volatile war veteran working as a specialist police protection officer.

After a nerve-jangling opening scene, a 20-minute action sequence that sees Budd confront and disarm a suicide bomber on a packed commuter train, his bravery gets him a promotion, and he is assigned to protect the Home Secretary Julia Montague (a brilliant Keeley Hawes). But though heroic, Budd is also tormented, both by the past and by his fractured family life. Is he really the right man for the job? And how will he react when a killer tries to assassinate the woman he's been assigned to protect?

Whereas other dramas might spend weeks building to a climax, Bodyguard hits you with more than you could ever have expected in the first episode and doesn't let up from there. Where it will take you is impossible to guess, but you can be guaranteed a thrilling, edge-of-the-seat ride. (Six episodes)

Treason

The deputy head of MI6 is in hot water in Matt Charman's five-part thriller

Year: 2022

Certificate: 15

A five-part British thriller with more twists than a bowl full of spaghetti. Daredevil's Charlie Cox stars as Adam Lawrence, a kind-eyed family man and deputy head of MI6. He's minding his own business when, one day, circumstances conspire to put him in the top job - and a figure from his past shows up with a sinister request. It's a whirlwind ride from that point on, in a show full of scenes in which you're never quite sure who to trust. That's a great place to be as a viewer - right on the edge of your seat - and this sure-handedness should come as no surprise when you learn that Treason comes from Matt Charman, who wrote the Tom Hanks thriller Bridge Of Spies.

As a side note, you may notice a theme of heartbeats in the script, which springs from the show's strong focus on Adam's family life. The technological manifestation of that - the fact his heartbeat is used to access MI6's computers - was, sadly, made up by the writers. But it is a really fun idea, just like this show in general. (Five episodes)

Citadel

High-stakes mayhem in this blockbuster global spy show

Year: 2023

Certificate: 15